Sunset on Pluto! The sun shines through the “fog” near Pluto’s surface. The shadows come from hills and mountains.

This is the heart-shaped bright spot on Pluto, also known as Sputnik Planum. The white color likely comes from nitrogen ice.

Red arrows show where a glacier flows into Sputnik Planum. Blue arrows point to the edge of the glacier.

Another view of the glaciers, showing more detail.

If you ever even for a minute thought Pluto was an inert little ice ball, banish those thoughts now. A whole new batch of Pluto photos from New Horizons has some of the best views yet of the planet's atmosphere and exotic ices.

A geeky aside: These new photos come from MVIC, a camera that's part of Ralph, New Horizons' main “eyes” and color imager. The last batch of New Horizons photos was from a different instrument, the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager or LORRI, which as its name implies was built for looking at Pluto from far away. With Ralph today, we’re getting up close and personal with Pluto.

And you know what scientists are super excited about seeing with Ralph? Atmospheric haze. Just as the Earth has fog and clouds and a water cycle, Pluto appears to have a nitrogen cycle. A bright spot, informally dubbed the Sputnik Planum, is probably covered in these exotic nitrogenous ices. And those swirls? Nitrogen glaciers. Looking good, Pluto.